Erosion
by Arctimon
Summary: Memories flow away eventually. Sometimes they change. He does his best to make sure they stay. In the meantime, here's to hoping he can make new ones. Slight BB/Raven; minor TTG! crossover.


_**Disclaimer:** This particular one-shot is based off of "Rocks and Water", so you'll want to re-watch to pay attention to what's going on. Or not. You don't have to. You are your own man/woman/human/other._

 _The Teen Titans animation is the property of Glen Murakami and Warner Bros. Animation._

* * *

 _ **Erosion**_

Beast Boy rocked back in his chair. It wasn't every day that he was entirely pleased with himself, but he topped himself with this.

He had just submitted his newest work about fifteen minutes before, but based off of his previous view data, he was already rewarding himself with another fanatical daydream about him swimming in the mass of adoring fans.

Of course, his latest creation was about a subject he would rather not dwell on. She was still on his mind years later. That much had not changed.

Beast Boy had written about her before, and while that was not as difficult, this one was on another level. Maybe it was just the culmination of the several stories he had done before.

A light knock on his door interrupted his thoughts. Beast Boy glanced at his bedside clock and groaned. Who was up at this hour? Not even Robin bothered the team this early on the weekends.

He wondered over to the door and opened it...

Well, this was a surprise.

"Hello...Beast Boy."

He rolled his eyes at the newcomer. "Raven, I haven't even done anything to you yet today. Why are you even here?"

"You know very well why."

"...No, I actually don't." He looked back again at his clock. "You're up early."

"I'm always up this early." Raven held up her cup of tea. "If you were awake more often before one in the afternoon, you would know that."

Beast Boy motioned dramatically behind him. "Do you want to come in?"

"Is your room clean?"

"Uhhh..."

"Is your room capable of sustaining human life?"

"Yeah."

"Fair enough." She walked in with her mug, Beast Boy closing the door behind her.

"I see that you're keeping up with your adoring fans," Raven said, nodding to his computer. "I'm surprised you waited this long for Cyborg to get you an actual personal computer instead of you using the main one."

"Eh, it's kind of slow, but it gets the job done. I'm so used to planning it out on paper. Plus, there's _way_ too many buttons."

Raven rolled her eyes. "It's called the 'alphabet', Beast Boy."

"I know what _that_ is, Rae."

Ignoring his nickname, she focused back onto her tea. "So why are _you_ up so early? Couldn't sleep again?"

"Yeah, it's been-" Beast Boy stopped, confusion on his face. "How do you know about that?"

She pointed to her head. "Empath, remember?"

"The path of what?"

Raven's finger hung in the air for a moment, followed up by a sigh. "I can feel emotions, Beast Boy. Lately, my brain's been picking up strong emotional stress. And since you _are_ the one right down the hall..."

"How do you know they're not anyone else's?"

"Because none of them are thinking this hard about Terra."

The silence in the air was deafening.

"And since you're currently writing about her, I would imagine that is the cause of your sleeplessness."

For a moment, even in Raven's monotone explanation, she thought that she had gone too far. Beast Boy's face crinkled into confusion, then anger, then deep thought, all in a single moment. And then he opened his mouth.

"You're RathInDaHoodz!"

...Well, this was unexpected. "I'm what now?"

"I should've known! That's a screen name only Cyborg would think up! Admit it!"

"I literally have no idea what you're talking about." She took another nonchalant sip from her cup.

"Well, that person is the only one whose left a review since I've uploaded my latest story."

Raven stopped mid-gulp.

"And who exactly would be smart enough to be up early enough to comment and come into my room not five minute later and talk about said story? Hmm?"

Raven composed herself mentally, shrugging him off. "You _did_ say you wanted me to read your works."

Beast Boy's smug look grew even bigger. "So you're not denying it."

"What I do in the morning is none of your business."

"And yet here you are."

The spellcaster cocked her head, impressed. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?"

Beast Boy wasn't finished there. "I bet you even sit in front a computer just waiting for me to upload. Heck, did Cyborg bug this computer for you, so that you can just telepathically send in a review every time you sense that I'm in the middle of writing."

Aaaand there it went. "That's possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say. And I've heard you say a lot of stupid things."

"Oh yeah?" Beast Boy glared. "Name one."

"You thought that a platypus was someone just taping the head of a duck to the body of a beaver."

"They're a freak of nature! Nothing that weird can just...exist!"

Raven thought for a moment, tapping the lip of her mug. "Well, you're not _wrong_." She took the opportunity to jab a thumb at his computer. "This is the part of the story where I would normally give you some piece of advice about holding on to someone's memory for too long, right? I think you wrote that one already."

"How do you think I can even write this stuff?"

She looked up at him again. "Hmm?"

"If I wasn't at peace with it, I wouldn't even be able to do any of the ones with her in it." Beast Boy returned her gaze. "Or did you forget to say anything when you commented on the other ones?"

For once, it was Raven who was silent.

"It's like all of this stuff flows through me. Emotions, feelings. The writing helps with it. I know she's not coming back, Raven. But that's why it's easy for me now to do this stuff now."

"...Wow." She was even more surprised. "A thoughtful response. I never thought I would see the day." She made her way over to his door, empty mug in hand. "Just don't let it overrun you, OK? We wouldn't want your fans to think you've gone crazy."

Beast Boy smiled. "Wouldn't think of it."

"The others should be up by now. I'll see you downstairs?"

"In a sec. I need to finish up something first."

"Suit yourself." Raven went out into the hallway, but not before turning back and saying "You should probably read what I wrote on your story before you come down. It might help a little bit."

"I'll do that," he said. "Thanks, Rae."

As the door closed behind her, Beast Boy sat down at his desk, ready to see what she had written. It couldn't be that bad, right?

…

Oh, dear. Quite the opposite.

* * *

Raven's back landed softly on the closed door of his bedroom. She was still in thought about the conversation, tapping her mug absentmindedly. Never ceased to amaze her, that Beast Boy. His writing was improving, as well as his deductive reasoning.

She smirked slightly as she remembered from earlier.

"I _told_ Cyborg that name was too obvious."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Word to the wise: don't let Cyborg pick your screen names. He's not subtle.

This is number three of my mini-series on the crossover of TT and TTG!. I should probably learn to update these a little more often, because I have at least one more idea from a TTG! episode. Still gotta write it, though.

 **Spectacle** will hopefully be updated on the weekend. I had a good run going for a bit, but the end of the semester is...draining, to say the least. Summer should be a good time for updates, though.

Read and review, in the meantime. Until next time, everyone.


End file.
